As expected, there was frantic action in the final three matches of the round robin qualifying in the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup and d’Orsi Seniors Cup as team scrambled for coveted spots in the top eight in their brackets.

There was no action more dramatic than the comeback of the Dutch team in the Seniors. With one match to go, Netherlands lay ninth, nearly 6 victory points out of eighth. Against China Hong Kong, the Dutch fell behind 22-1 after six deals but outscored their opponents 52-1 the rest of the way to climb into eighth place. Edged out by the Dutch rally were USA1, who suff ered a 59-15 defeat by Poland and dropped to ninth, 0.52 VPs out of eighth.

In the Bermuda Bowl, eighth-place Canada had an 8-VP lead going into the fi nal set but had to face the bracket-leadingUSA1. As the fi nal match progressed, USA2 began closing in on Canada as they routed India. At one point, Canada’smargin shrunk to 1.26 VPs, but the team recovered near the end to defeat USA1 and earn a qualifying spot.

The leaders after a week of round robin play are USA1, Bermuda Bowl; Netherlands, Venice Cup, and France in the d’OrsiSeniors Trophy. Th e Netherlands, Poland and USA have teams in all three events.

The Buttler

Robots doing battle in Bali

The XVII World Computer-Bridge Championships started on Monday with the top six robots entered Last year’s champion, Jack (Netherlands) tries to defend its title against Wbridge5 (France), Micro Bridge (Japan), Shark Bridge (Denmark), Bridge Baron (USA) and Q-Plus Bridge (Germany).

Results are posted on the official website (www.computerbridge.com). The format is a 48-board round robin covering five days with the top two finishers playing a 64-board, one-day fi nal.